Franziska Heil

Franziska Heil serves as a Lecturer in the Department of Police at the Hessian University of Applied Sciences for Public Management and Security and as a Knowledge Transfer Officer at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF) within the PrEval project. She is an active member of PRIF's Radicalization, Terrorism, and Extremism Prevention Research Group, facilitating critical knowledge exchange between academia, security practitioners, policymakers, and the public in extremism prevention and democracy promotion.

Her educational background includes an M.A. in Criminology and Violence Research from the University of Regensburg (2019-2022), a B.A. in Rehabilitation Sciences from Humboldt University Berlin (2015-2018), and a DAAD scholarship at the University of the Western Cape (2017). She also completed specialized training as a Blickwechsel coach for radicalized youth.

Heil's research focuses on extremist online ecosystems across multiple ideologies, with particular expertise in right-wing alternative strategies, Islamist digital propaganda, and anti-LGBTIQ* extremism. Her work analyzes how digital platforms enable hate dissemination and democratic erosion while developing practical prevention frameworks for educational and security contexts.

Her publication portfolio demonstrates a consistent trajectory examining digital extremism through empirical, policy-oriented lenses. Recent works synthesize findings on online radicalization mechanisms, evaluation methodologies for prevention programs, and intersectional vulnerabilities of marginalized communities in digital spaces.

As Knowledge Transfer Officer for PrEval, Heil coordinates nationwide quality assurance initiatives for extremism prevention projects while translating academic insights into operational tools for practitioners. Her teaching assignment trains future police officers in recognizing and countering extremist narratives through evidence-based approaches.

Heil actively contributes to PRIF's Radicalization Research Group and the PrEval network, developing collaborative frameworks that integrate academic rigor with frontline security practice to strengthen democratic resilience against evolving extremist threats.